Human Resource Management in Agriculture: Key Issues and Suggestions

Running head: Human Resource Management
Agriculture
Student’s name
Name of the Institute

Human Resource Management
Introduction
Agriculture is the sector occupies a key position in the world economy. It is a
source of livelihood for major section of world population. It is believed that there is
growing trends in agricultural in terms of food grains. However, there are multiple
areas of concern like requirement of more resources. These resources could be capital
or human resources. For example more energy like chemical fertilizers, mineral
fertilizers and farm machinery is needed. But this sector still comes under poverty.
This has resulted in migration of large workers to urban cities in search of other job
opportunities. It is getting difficult to retain the work force in this area. People are
switching to construction jobs. These areas look promising. No wonder any child
would dream to get involved in agriculture. But what leads to such a disastrous
condition of this sectors. There are some key issues or themes which make this sector
less attractive. These issues have linear growth. So this is high time to address these
issues. There is strong need of agricultural innovations. These innovations include
nutrition and welfare status of families working in agriculture, allocation of policies,
attractive pay, involvement of private sector and reduction in gender disparity.
Issues
The agricultural sector is the one which decided the growth of many other
sectors. But the agricultural sector is not very attractive in terms of wages. The rural
wages remain constant for many years. In fact the ways for agricultural sector is
constant. This has forced laborers to switch to other professions like carpenter etc.
Sometimes laborers migrate from one place to another in search of good pay. The
sector also suffers variation in wage rate group of different some other states. The
reasons include large amount of availability of unskilled labor. The wage rates are
higher in case of shortage of agricultural labor and availability of high value crops. In

Human Resource Management
some countries like India, agriculture sector is the largest employer. The productivity
of agriculture also impacts the wages of the sector. This income gap in agricultural
sector is either due to differences in productivity and the continuous underestimating
agricultural sector (McCullough, 2017). So it is difficult to attract workers in this
sector. This directly impacts the quality of life workers are going to live. Generally
their working lives are depicted as casual form of labor, no social protection and
precarious working condition (Marsden & Arce, 2017). Also it does not guarantee the
workers will be paid for the extra hours they are going to put on field. However,
government is not able to explain the differences in wage income in this sector. This
motivates people to shift to different sector or migrate to different areas where they
can earn into other sectors and earn livelihood. Agricultural income in many countries
put workers on the lower rung and below minimum level. Even though international
trade in this sector is rising roughly but rise in wage growth is uneven. Also,
agricultural workers are employed for a reason (when the crops are grown) thus
leaving them unemployed for a long time. During the time they are employed they
have to work for long hours in dangerous condition. This does not guarantee
promising career and hence this sector does not attract. There is no medical allowance
and compensation for the workers here. These things are not limited to developing
countries but also developed countries as well (Ciutacu & Andrei, 2015). The
suggestions include investing in infrastructure in order to generate more employment
which boosts labor-intensive growth.
Another challenge in this sector is generally posting in rural areas so lack of
luxury lifestyle. The day of farmer’s or worker’s life is very tough. It includes starting
up early morning. Also these workers work on farm, nurseries and many other areas.
The workers has diverse and numerous duties. The activities include irrigation,

Human Resource Management
delivering animals, planting crops etc. They are not required to work in fully
furnished air conditioned building. Instead they have to work in tough weather.
Access to sanitation and drinking water is also difficult on field. There is no 4o hour
work week for agricultural workers. Their schedule is variable. The timelines here
cannot be extended. There are long working hours and no weekends. Agricultural
work is seasonal. Sometimes work schedules are more demanding. There are more
chances of emergencies than any other sector. Agricultural workers are more exposed
to the risk of pesticides and other chemicals which are hazardous and sprayed on
plants or crops (Stiglitz & Rosengard, 2015). Required safety procedures are neither
applied in developing nations or in any part of the world. There is chance of injury
when workers use high equipment and tools during the work. Working with animals
on the field may lead to kicked or bitten. The job skills are directly provided on job.
So there is lack of training period in this profession. This sector requires workers who
are friendly, educated. The workers must be self-motivating. There is lack of
management supervision in this kind of profession. The worker’s life is worse who
migrates from one place to another. The work is exhausting and uncertain. Also the
GDP of nations is more focused on service and manufacturing sector (Ntambirweki-
Karugonjo & Jones, 2015). So this sector is avoided by the government. The workers
generally work in the rural areas. These areas generally lack the facilities. The quality
and standard of life is low in these areas. Also the future is not promising. There is
lack of education and quality of living. Workers are not paid well, not provided with
good housing and not getting good treatment. Still there is lack of technologies
available in this sector.
Another area of concern is policy. The policies are not made considering labor
or to attract youth labor (Mersha & Heuvel, 2018). Instead, government uses the mode